> When you're working with a large number of source files, the ability to have auto-complete, parameter guessing, getter/setter creation, auto-builders, and rea

> When you're working with a large number of source files, the ability to have auto-complete, parameter guessing, getter/setter creation, auto-builders, and real-time code syntax/quality/checkstyle/pmd/findbugs/etc... validation means you can write working code more quickly. I think his point is broader than that - he's arguing that IDEs encourage/are symptomatic of/cause bloat of the APIs and encourage bloat in other areas (e.g. generated code). However, I think this article misses a trick by not mentioning functional programming. FP reduces the surface area of many APIs considerably. It also "fixes" all the code generation issues with a much more elegant solution (i.e. macros).